Last year we set out our aspiration to match the best countries in the world for organ donation and transplantation, and if we are going to achieve this we will need to see a revolution in attitudes in society towards donation.

The increase in donors reflects increasing support in hospitals to refer potential donors to us and more families being approached, but there has been little change in our attitude to donation over the last few years. It's still not something we would all be proud to do.

My heart goes out to all the families that find themselves in the position where they have to make a decision about organ donation.

In particular, the decision to donate on behalf of a young child is really tough. But organ donation saves lives and donor families talk with pride of the difficult but ultimately rewarding decision to donate their loved one's organs. Knowing that they have helped save another family from a terrible experience, often helps them deal with their grief.

There are around 10,000 people in the UK in need of a transplant and some of these are young children. In order to save more lives, we need more people to join the organ donor register.